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Submission + - Verizon Working On a La Carte Internet TV Service (pcmag.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: One of the reasons people have been fleeing cable TV in droves is the idea that they're paying for hundreds of channels but only using a handful. Even though that's not really true, Verizon is now working an an internet TV service that lets people pick and pay for only the channels they want. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said, "I think everyone understands it will go to a la carte. The question is what is that transition look like ... I don't think there is anyone that would stand up here and say the only way it's going to be offered five years from now is linear and it's going to be tied to your TV set because frankly they will miss the market and they will be the ones left behind."

Submission + - Comcast adds third party wi-fi to home routers (comcast.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I got a mailing from my cable internet provider Comcast. They are modifying my cable modem so that other Comcast users can login on a separate Wi-Fi network, and I can do the same around town on all the other hotspots. The goal is to provide cheap data access for Wi-Fi users. Since I don't use their cell phone service, it seems unlikely to me that I get anything but hassle from this. I have several reservations about this;
  • Security. While they are putting it on a separate domain, I am concerned that it gives more exposure to the router software so that it can be breached and access my transmission. I'm underwhelmed by their assurances that nothing will happen although the counter argument is that any current thoughts that it's secure are delusional.
  • Performance they say

    Will my Internet slow down when someone connects to my XFINITY WiFi network? The broadband connection to your home will be unaffected by the XFINITY WiFi feature. Your in-home WiFi network, as well as XFINITY WiFi, use shared spectrum, and as with any shared medium there can be some impact as more devices share WiFi. We have provisioned the XFINITY WiFi feature to support robust usage, and therefore, we anticipate minimal impact to the in-home WiFi network

    Translation, the up to five foreign users are going to eat ithe shared spectrum in addition to my own machines. Since my video streaming usage is already marginal, I don't know if this will drop my performance.

  • Inconvenience Finally, opting out is going to require marching through their website or having the patience and understanding to deal with the delays at their call center hell.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

Submission + - Thought crime is terror in U.S. (wnd.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Justice Department is resurrecting a program designed to thwart domestic threats to the United States, and Attorney General Eric Holder says those threats include individuals the government deems anti-government or racially prejudiced.

The Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee was created in the wake of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing but was scrapped soon after the 2001 terrorist attacks as intelligence and law enforcement officials shifted their focus to threats from outside the country. The committee will be comprised of figures from the FBI, the National Security Division of the Justice Department and the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee.

In his statement announcing the return of the committee, Holder said he remains concerned about the specter of attacks prompted by Islamic extremists, but he said this committee will be tasked with identifying other threats.

“We must also concern ourselves with the continued danger we face from individuals within our own borders who may be motivated by a variety of other causes from anti-government animus to racial prejudice,” Holder said. According to reporting from Reuters, the ACLU is pushing back against the DOJ plan, fearing “it could be a sweeping mandate to monitor and collect controversial speech.”

Comment Re:this would never happen in america. (Score 1) 284

by J053 (#46942905) Attached to: Russia Quietly Passes Anti-Blogger Law

Now imagine what would have happened if Snowden had provided his materials only to the NY Times. Oh, wait, we don't have to imagine. We know what would have happened because previous leakers did that, only to find the NYT was already under the thumb and they chose not to publish.

Yeah, like they chose not to publish the papers Daniel Ellsberg released to them! Oh, wait...

Comment Re:questionable axiom (Score 1) 465

by J053 (#46896253) Attached to: Lessig Launches a Super PAC To End All Super PACs

Electorally, the rich are way dis-empowered compared to the masses, whether based on simple capita counts, or contributions to the treasury, or indeed receipts from the treasury.

Nice obfuscation. The problem with political contributions is that they purchase access. If I contribute $5000 to a senator's campaign, and you contribute $0, which of us is more likely to be able to get a meeting with him/her? The ability to call a politician on the phone and have them take your call, personally is worth much more than the value of a vote.

Comment Re:Does this mean no more Gnome desktop? (Score 1) 693

by J053 (#46763127) Attached to: The GNOME Foundation Is Running Out of Money

You have plenty of documentation available on https://help.gnome.org/users/ and https://developer.gnome.org/.

Ya know, this is a trend that is really beginning to piss me off. In the beginning, one of the best things about UNIX/Linux was that the documentation was all, always, locally-available. And, for the most part, to read it you just had to type "man whatever". Yes, manpages were not known for their readability, but they did (usually) have all the info you needed. Now, for so many projects, the documentation is all somewhere on teh Interwebs, or (at best) you have to find /usr/share/doc/program-version/ and, if you're lucky, there will be some documentation there.

Would it hurt GNOME/KDE/whatever devs to at least include basic manpages in their packages? Why can't aI type "man evolution" to see what command switches might be available, or to get some kind of tips?

GOML.

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